I love being given the opportunity to update our school library which is a unique space for both senior students and staff to access high quality literature. This is definitely a must-buy. It kept me absolutely gripped from cover to cover and is exactly the kind of read that just flies off the shelves. It has exactly the right combination of credible characters and a compelling plot thatI just could not put down. This is a great read that I couldn't stop thinking about and it made for a hugely satisfying read. I'm definitely going to order a copy and think it will immediately become a popular addition to our fiction shelves. 10/10 would absolutely recommend.

Women Writing Comedy

I was completely charmed by Big Girl, Small Town with its comic Northern Irish vernacular, so I was looking forward to this next novel which I picked up on seeing that she has again been shortlisted for the Comedy Women in Print Prize UK/Ireland. She is a writer that makes me laugh out loud while reading, a rare quality indeed.

A Summer Job, Awaiting Results

Factory Girls is a story that takes place over the summer of 1994, while three friends, living in an unnamed northern Irish town, await their exam results and confirmed university placements, and therefore the trajectory of their future lives.

They have taken a job in a shirt factory, and two of the girls Maeve and Caroline have rented a small two bedroom apartment opposite. Maeve, who is the main protagonist of the novel, aspires to study journalism in London, Aoife has her sights on Cambridge and Caroline, Magee.

Maeve has studied hard to ensure she attains the results that will enable her to escape her suffocating home life, the empty bed and stifling sadness surrounding her sister’s premature death and the continued menace of simmering violence that pervades the divided community they live in.

Family Dynamics and Social Standing

Though they attended the same school, they each come from different family dynamics and these differences over the course of the summer begin to play into how they perceive and respond to the various situations that will arise.

They receive a different kind of education over the next two months as they enter a rare ‘mixed’ workplace, where Catholics and Protestants work side by side, despite the overhanging external threat of sectarian violence. The girls learn how to navigate an adult work environment, discover what they miss when living independently and witness how life plans can change drastically overnight.

All three of the girls will be confronted with the need to adapt their expectations, in this humorous yet serious and insightful look at Northern Irish society on the cusp of peacetime.

Perpetuating the Divide

It is an interesting work that reads simply on the surface, but exposes various minute behaviours that contribute to creating a sense of the divide and how it is perpetuated by members of the community. For all that Maeve wishes to escape it, she views the ‘Prods‘ with suspicion, uncertainty and denial of her feelings. It makes for strange reading, as the separation between the groups feels illogical to a reader from outside. To her credit, Maeve has learned that the two sides do have a couple of things in common – they both got excited about payday and liked talking about the weather.

In Factory Girls, there is language they use to describe each other, like ‘Prods‘ and ‘Taigs‘ and referring to the Republic of Ireland as the ‘Free State‘; there is Maeve’s suppression of the sexual chemistry between her and the English boss Andy, relationships let alone attraction to the other side is forbidden; the subtle labeling of venues, which are deemed okay for one side or the other, making it difficult when the boss wants to treat his employees to celebratory drinks after work – it seems there is no place where all can be comfortable.

Overall, an entertaining read that somehow manages to bring humour to a not very comical situation, something that the Irish excel at and Michelle Gallen most definitely. I can well imagine both her novels on the small screen and they both lend themselves to potential sequels!

I really really loved Michelle Gallen’s first book, and couldn’t wait to read Factory Girls, and it was no disappointment. The characterisation is so vivid, and the place and time beautifully, compellingly drawn.

Another fantastic belly laugh inducing novel from Michelle Gallen. Perfect for those with Derry Girls withdrawals. Full of laughter, heartwarming moments and just really good story telling.

Full review to come.

After Big Girl, Small Town, I was very excited about this new novel, and I wasn’t disappointed. Factory Girls is another brilliant outing for Gallen and deserves high praise.

Thanks so much to Netgalley and the publishers for letting me read an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

For those of us missing the sublime 'Derry girls' (and what a finale it was) Michelle Gallen's 'Factory girls' is, pardon the pun, very much cut from the same cloth. It has the same acerbic humour, banter and craic that were very much present in Lisa McGee's tv show.

Meave, Caroline and Aoife are three girls awaiting their A-level results in a small town in Tyrone in 1994. Keen to get an early taste of freedom, Maeve and Caroline take on a job in the local textile factory and rent an upstairs flat across from its gates. Aoife also takes a job in the factory, more for the experience than the money, and remains living in her parents house, the redbrick house by the river with its prime view of the eleventh night bonfire.

Maeve is the narrator, the wittiest and most direct of the group. She's still coping with the death of her older sister, and wants to study journalism in London. But she’s worried about getting the necessary grades to allow her to escape the hometown she terms a 'shithole.'

Maeve has a bit of a notion in the factory boss, Andy Strawbridge, but does her best to resist his advances. She also has to navigate the sectarian battlelines in the factory, with distrust rife between protestants and catholics. Not that Maeve doesn't know which side she's on.


'Factory girls' is deadly accurate in capturing a time and a place. I was a year older than these girls and remember clearly the climate of terror. Just like in the book, you were always conscious of which pub you went to, and where you were sitting. Ideally, not close to the front windows and with a view of the door. Not that these precautions always protected people, but it made you feel like you were at least being proactive and doing something.

As a student, you wanted to be allowed to get on with your life. Forget mortar bombs and indiscriminate sectarian slaugter in bars - you wanted to get drunk, to listen to Nirvana and most of all to get off with the opposite sex. A conflict wasn't going to stop you, and the book captures this brilliantly. You wanted to escape it, but it was always there and you could find yourself in its maelstrom at any momment.


I also worked in a couple of factories during my time as a student. One was a meat production plant, and the other a textile factory, where I worked the nightshift. Not only does the book capture both the monotony and the camaraderie, but the importance of the factory to the local community. When the textile factory closed in my small town, moving to Morocco where it could pay lower wages (hello neoliberalism) the arse completely fell out of it. It was the biggest employer for miles around and most of the people had never worked anywhere else since leaving school. It had already been devastated by partition, the troubles and there's been no post conflict lift economic either. Like a lot of similar places, it will only begin to recover once the border vanishes forever (coming soon).



For all the humour, there is a dark undercurrent to a parts of the book, and Maeve Murray is far from just being a wisecracking character. There’s a lot of anger and frustration in Maeve and some of the other characters, a harshness that came from living through those times, a protective shell we all built around us. It also tackles issues such as religion, suicide and poverty.

There’s a countdown to the girls getting their results and a storyline of sorts about the factory, but it’s not really a plot based book. It’s very much character driven and all the better for that.

‘Factory girls’ has an edge that really captures the gallows humour of the place, a proper blackness to the comedy. Obviously Derry girls isn't just as dark, but Michelle Gallen captures that humour that was formed from living in those times and acted as an important escape valve.

This is a terrific read that I finished in just a couple of days, well written with a cracking pace that’s darkly funny and absolutely deserving of your time. I have another Michelle Gallen book (‘Big girl, small town’) that I’m already looking forward to.

Thanks to Netgalley and John Murray publishing for the ARC

Factory Girls by Michelle Gallen

Set in Northern Ireland in the early nineties this is the story of three young girls on the cusp of adulthood. Awaiting the results of their A Levels the girls take summer work in the local shirt factory. While there are shades of Derry Girls here I think it is a lot darker than that.
It manages to illustrate the bleakness that pervades small towns everywhere but with the added unease of “the troubles” here it seems grimmer than most.
Undoubtedly, the wit and humour that is abundant in Northern Ireland shines through, and manages to lift this story, but for me it was all too dreary and depressing. Many thanks to NetGalley for my ARC of this book. For me it’s a 3⭐️Story.

I suppose that’s the difficulty – how to follow a smashing debut such as Big Girl, Small Town. It seems that Factory Girls was written part before and part after Big Girl and was heavily edited, but for me it still felt too long.
Big Girl Majella is unusual and unpredictable and she managed, paradoxically, to be a person who is a million miles from anyone else and one you could still relate too. Maeve and her friends Caroline and Aoife failed to emit the magic. Neither the three friends, nor Fidelma nor Andy Strawbridge gelled. One of the reviewers has likened this book to Derry Girls set in the Coronation St factory but not in any good way. Unfortunately Factory Girls is neither consistently funny nor are the points made just sharp enough. I wondered at times if some of the content might appear distasteful and disagreeable to some readers.
Disappointed in this one.

It’s the summer of 1994 and in a small town in the north of Ireland, Maeve and her friends have just finished school. They take on summer jobs at the local shirt factory before heading off to university. Maeve is desperate to leave for London. There’s all the usual difficulties of youth: money, boys, exam results, family, friendships but with the added ever present menacing backdrop of the Sectarian divide. It captures the claustrophobia and danger of the time of the nascent peace agreement - the edgy threat of violence, death and bitter instability. It’s about loss of loved ones, loss of childhood, class and social mobility but it’s raw, real, funny, heart rending and hopeful.
It’s brooding, razor sharp, beautiful prose - I can’t praise it enough - I loved this book!
Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC. All views are my own.

Factory Girls by Michelle Gallen is riotously funny, perfectly capturing a special moment in history.

Set during the summer after completing their exams that would determine if they received their chosen university courses, Maeve Murray and her friends decided to get jobs in the local shirt factory, the main employer in the small town where they live.

The factory owner, Englishman Andy Strawbridge is friendly but has a reputation for getting too friendly with staff so the girls are on their guard. They learn a lot in a short time and enjoy the freedom of renting a flat opposite the factory. All seems to be going well until another Andy agrees a partnership deal with another company.

Maeve and her friends and the other factory workers are wonderful characters living in the aftermath of the uncertain peace agreement in Northern Ireland. The claustrophobia of the small town contrasts with Maeve's plans to study in London in September.

Gallen has perfectly captured with humour and perception the excitement, anticipation and expectation of that moment in time for both the girls and the community.

Michelle Gallen's sophomore novel has all the same traits that made Big Girl,. Small Town so brilliant - it's filthy, hilarious and surprisingly heartstring-tugging.

It's the summer of 1994, and Maeve Murray is counting down until her exam results come out. A good result will guarantee her an escape from her stifling town - she wants to go to London to study journalism. In order to save up for this, she's got a job in the local factory along with her two best friends.

Another 1990s Northern Irish gal novel, if you're a fan of Michelle from Derry Girls you will love Maeve. She's very much built in the same mould - headstrong, foul-mouthed, but with her heart in the right place. The secondary characters are also fantastic, all of them feel very real and well-developed. Big Girl, Small Town focussed hugely on one character, but Factory Girls is a little more of an ensemble piece and the results are so, enjoyable.

Not just a frothy teenage read, though, this book has more going on than its bright cover would have you believe - Gallen uses the factory setting to tackle secterianism, class and social mobility. It's really well done and never feels preachy.



A fantastic read that deserves all the accolades coming its way on pub date. With thanks to NetGalley and John Murray Press for the advanced reader copy.

I really enjoyed this book from Michelle Gallen, and was routing for Maeve all the way. It's funny, sharp and moving and will fill the Derry Girls' shaped hole in your life this summer.

I didn’t warm to this book initially; the swearing and sexual references put me off. But I was so glad I kept on with it. By the end I was routing for Maeve - what a girl! Coming from a poor family, with aspirations of being a journalist, and fighting to get out of small town Northern Ireland. I went to a Catholic school in Liverpool during the seventies so thought I knew a fair bit about the Troubles butI learned a whole lot more from reading about these 3 girls. I can’t wait for the next book by this author.

I read and loved Big Girl, Small Town by Michelle Gallen. I was buzzing when I seen I could request to read this. I’ve heard so much growing up about the shirt factories in Derry so knew this book had great potential. When you read the premise you’ll understand why I was so excited to receive this ARC.

Maeve Murray has always felt like an outsider in the shitty wee town in Northern Ireland that she calls home. She hopes her exam results will be her ticket to a new life in London; a life where no one knows her business, or cares about her dead sister. But first she's got to survive a tit-for-tat paramilitary campaign as brutal as her relationship with her mam, iron 800 shirts a day to keep her summer job in the local factory, and dodge the attentions of Andy Strawbridge, her dubious English boss. Maeve and her two best friends try to squeeze as much fun as possible into their last summer at home. But as marching season raises tensions among the Catholic and Protestant workforce, Maeve realises something is going on behind the scenes at the factory, forcing her to make a choice that will impact her life - and the lives of others - for ever.

This was an absolute cracker of a read. It is full of that classic, unique northern humour that I love so much. As cliche as it may sound, this completely filled the Derry Girls void in my life. Gallen does such an amazing job at making you howl with laughter at one instance and make your heart drop the next. I was hooked. I thought Maeve was an incredible protagonist (despite her flaws) who I was rooting for from the beginning.

Factory Girls is razor sharp, underneath the humour. I loved how this book was structured with a countdown to results day. Gallen also dives deep into topics of class, sectarianism, the impact on mental health the Troubles has had and sexism in the workplace, among many others. The fact that these are all intertwined with a gripping plot and wit made this book unputdownable for me.

Honestly, I adored it. I could not recommend this one more. I can’t wait until it’s out and people are reading it. It’s definitely one you won’t want to miss.

Thank you so much to John Murrays and NetGalley for allowing me to read this ARC. Factory Girls is out June 23rd.

Factory Girls by Michelle Gallen
If you’re looking for that elusive hilarious book set in Northern Ireland with the utter alchemy to spin real life drudgery into gold, this is the book for you. It’s also written by Costa-nominated NI author Michelle Gallen so, how could you not?

In Northern Ireland in 1994, Maeve, Caroline and Aoife agonize over their expected A level results. They decide to take their minds off things with summer jobs at the local shirt factory run by the dishy English rogue, Andy Strawbridge. He and his strongarm assistant Mary don’t care that it’s a mere short stay for the three and soon the girls are pushed to earn meagre bonuses and get mired in factory intrigue.

Set at the tail end of the Troubles, the story is a rich slice of life. It reflects the socioeconomic misery as well as the sectarian strife and that ever-present threat of violence. The generous layer of Irish wit and sassiness keeps the story singing and the author’s use of vernacular means that we can hear the humour as well. Michelle Gallen mentions plenty of cultural icons to resurrect the nineties where each of her characters abides as a fully-formed human, even the baddies.

The author ramps up the mystery and energy as the story races toward results day. The reader gets an impressive nail-biter of a climax with a punch-the-air ending. Not all characters end up where they thought they would, but you can’t deny they’ve had a wild ride.

If you liked Gallen’s ‘Big girl, small town’ or Channel 4’s ‘Derry Girls’, you will love this. If you are a fan of Roddy Doyle, Marian Keyes, Cecilia Ahern or even ‘The Bell Jar’ by Sylvia Plath, you will not be disappointed. Thanks to John Murray Publishing and NetGalley UK for the eARC. I devoured it.

Factory Girls
By Michelle Gallen

On the face of it, this story is like what you might get if you were to cast the characters from Derry Girls in a remake of 1970s/80s Coronation Street factory scenes. It is hilariously funny, but with a deep cutting edge which reveals the dark underbelly of a deeply divided community that cannot escape it's sectarian violence. Both communities are suffering from a cycle of hatred, suspicion, resentment and scapegoating which wears itself into their psyche. What Gallen describes so well is the day to day getting on with things that people in this community have to do against a background of poverty, classism, sectarianism, racism, foreign soldiers training automatic weapons on you and tanks cruising up and down your streets.
I remember so well that excruciating summer I spent waiting for my own exam results, and I am so excited and nervous for Maeve and her friends as they try to figure out how their lives are going to begin.
The time and place feels very real. All the cultural references are spot on, The dialogue is witty, cutting and authentic. The characters may seem outsized but they all remind me of people I know or have known and the overall tension of always feeling like you are being exploited is very well drawn.
Thank you #NetGalley and #JohnMurrayPress for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Factory Girls by Michelle Gallen

Maeve and her best friends Caroline and Aoife have finished their A levels and take jobs in the local shirt factory while waiting for the results which will enable them to leave their town for a new life at university. Set in the 1990s in Northern Ireland the shirt factory is one of the few places where Protestants and Catholics mix, but as summer goes on and marching season begins tensions rise, not least because of the boss, Andy Strawbridge.

Maeve is a fabulous character and the dialogue between her and the other characters is so brilliant. I read this book in one go, desperate for Maeve to have her happy ending/new beginning. Along the way we see life through her eyes and the dark side of family tragedy, grief, sectarianism, religion, sexism, violence and social class but always with banter and larger than life characters. A triumph - read it and you'll be cheering Warrior Maeve along too! Very VERY highly recommended.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book.

Michelle Gallen's first novel, Big Girl, Small Town, marked her out as an exciting new voice from Northern Ireland and someone I was keen to keep an eye on. Although I didn't fully connect with that book or its main character, I could see Gallen had a deeply original voice and a unique way of looking at the world, and was eager to see how these might develop in any subsequent work. Factory Girls is a more satisfying read in my view overall and is a book I would strongly recommend to anyone trying to understand what day-to-day life was like for those living in Troubles-era Northern Ireland.

Maeve Murray has just finished secondary school and is hoping to go to university in London and thereby leave behind the problematic region where she's grown up, as well as a difficult family situation following the death of her older sister. While awaiting their A-level results, she and her two best mates get summer jobs at the local shirt factory, where some of the town's simmering tensions also manifest themselves and which will ensure that the summer of 1994 proves far from dull or uneventful for all three of them. With a great ear for the local dialect, brilliant dialogue, amusing situations and 90s references aplenty, Gallen has managed to write a light, highly readable novel about some very serious subjects. The book deals with class, identity, political conflict, loss and other equally heavy topics in a witty, entertaining and funny manner, whilst also bringing to the fore some of the voices (such as those of young women) which for a long time have been largely absent from literature set in that part of the world. These 'factory girls' have definitely stayed with me since finishing the novel and have made me more aware of the difficulties some people had to go through in Northern Ireland not that long ago. This book arrives at a time when there again seems to be a high level of interest in the region (for a variety of reasons), so here's hoping it will reach the large numbers of readers it deserves.

With thanks to NetGalley for an advanced copy in exchanged for an unbiased review.

For Maeve and her friends daily life holds not just the common feelings experienced by all teens: anxiety waiting for exam results, the mad swings of love and lust, boredom with where they grew up, and worry about earning enough money to save for what comes next. Their days are also full of frustration and fear as the threat of violence flares up around them on a daily basis as there’s continual tension between the Catholics and Protestants and resignation about the troubled political situation in the country. Mixed into this mix there is heaps of black humour. It’s hilarious from the beginning and the humour doesn’t let up. This is a story where well-drawn characters are living in dangerous and strained circumstances over the border from the Free State, under British control in Northern Ireland, but it’s not nearly as grim as it sounds.

‘But it’s all these good intentions that’s killing me,’ Maeve said. ‘Everyone’s always asking us to paint pictures or write poems. Ye’ve artists sculpting doves. Teachers sucking the fucken lifeblood outtay us by asking us tae sing “Imagine” – like, no harm, but is that not showing a total lack of imagination?’ ‘Aye,’ Fidelma said. ‘Nobody’s tackling the hard stuff.’

Maeve and her friends then outline how they believe life could be different without segregation, starting the process of integration from the earliest years. The insider knowledge and lived experience of the author shines out, this is not clearly not researched, but drawn from the author’s own life growing up in County Tyrone.

It has to be said (and I know I won’t be the first to say this and certainly not the last) but it is a good companion if you’re watching Derry Girls. Some of what is sketched out in Derry Girls will make much more sense after reading Factory Girls.

Factory Girls is laugh out loud funny, irreverent and touching. I loved it. I know this because I read it slowly and properly, always a good sign as I did not want it to end.

How long until until there is a film or television series? I’m positive the rights will be snapped up. At the end I felt there was also a lot of scope for a follow up book about what Maeve (and friend) do next ….

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read such an excellent ARC.

For the debut of Big Girl, a filthy, brave, and surprisingly soft novel I connected to deeply. I felt this second one was lacking a little,
I clicked with Majella so much-she came just before another dirty, raw debut of Scotland’s answer-Duckfeet, entirely in Scottish dialect and similar in the character’s situation, lack of quotation, and overall murky dark humour
Her mundane, suffocating life, her simple and sad everyday hours, her awkward and terrified self that couldn’t seem to stick friends and her trapped soul that was destined for beige and bland her whole living being.
She was brutal, miserable, often dirty-almost too much-and above all she was real-she was you, everyone you’ve ever met in a small rundown town, everyone your parents were and everyone you will be as you realise you ever get out or you surrender-get out of this place and never come back, or even return a “failure” and give in to the same boring, mind-inning hours and same dirty streets and same terrifying faces, hands, teeth you tried so hard to outrun.


She was someone you passed on the street who seemed too haunted and lonely for their age, the girl with sad eyes and crushed hope who served you at the butchers, your old batty neighbour with a life story long and dramatic enough for a movie, your filthy-mouthed granny who gave you lollies for every swear word you got right and your roaming-handed Aunty who drank too much at weddings and laughed too much at funerals.
She was everyone inside yourself and no one you tried to be.
She was a dirty, clogged and oily breath of murky, lonely air because, yes, she had a sad and lonely life and she didn’t have much for herself and she probably would never be entirely out of the Majella we knew, but she was also so unapologetic for anything she done and she didn’t care who knew.
She was brave and she bit back with a bite big enough to need stitches and she bruised others, not herself.
For this second novel, I felt everything wasn’t as brave and raw and relatable.
It didn’t bruise nearly as much and there was just as much bite.
Yes the three young girls desperately itching to leave behind their boring, heavy town was very natural and relatable to met readers, and so, of course, I related to this deeply.
But for me, this time none of the characters jumped out of the page and I couldn’t imagine any of them down the street, picking up eggs, walking without an umbrella in the rain.
Majella I could imagine everywhere, even her mother, the customers at the chip shop that became stale but a cold familiar comfort in their friendly but prickly rotation-they were all very real and relatable and everyone in my small Scottish town.
None of the characters here, for me, were written with as much life or breath as anyone in Michelle’s debut.
I got a scent of it near the end with the parting and the final last chapters, they were very vivid and alive-but overall I felt nothing was as heightened and pulsing as Big Girl.
I did still think the writing was great and raw, but overall I felt Big Girl had a greater depth, the writing stayed very consistently dark and pounding throughout, and every character was developed well.
Here I felt there were chapters throughout with chunks of great writing but then it would go back to not being as alive, as developed, and none of the characters-however much I related to them and still could see them in the faces of people in my town-were alive enough for me.
I will be trying it again on the official release date, and then reread Majella too.